The Hermit is an interesting concept. In the past, it has come to mean a quiet, contemplative life in isolation, the 'wise man in the cave' who sets our heroes on the right path. But the modern hermits live in a tiny rented apartment filled with electronics and screens, alone, all but isolated, by no means quiet let alone contemplative. Their thoughts, words and actions reach millions of people all over the world at the speed of light (or the speed of the connection in case - your mileage may vary) and they can inspire or put down, have an impact on people they will never meet.
Of course there still are traditional hermits. But the modern age needs it's modern phenomena, and the Internet gurus of the time may be either very well-known demagogues or completely anonymous people. They may even be groups of people. Anonymous is using the Low-Orbit Ion Cannon as a protest against organizations infringing on the freedom of speech. The USA and Israel used an extremely advanced targeted computer virus to hinder the Iranese nuclear enrichment project. Doesn't look like the work of hermits, right?
In the future society of the 21st century, isolation is just a state of mind.
torstai 24. maaliskuuta 2011
tiistai 15. maaliskuuta 2011
Wildcard II
Just a short text this time, and about myself too. I'm sure you were all missing my egoism by now.
So, I just thought that it was fascinating to follow the workings of my own mind after a disappointment. In this case, I failed my driving test today, postponing my license by at least another week and a half. I'd already been preparing myself for the failure beforehand by telling myself I didn't expect to pass since I was very uncomfortable with driving in general and didn't trust my own skills, despite knowing from Psychology classes that this kind of negative reinforcement is not a good way to prepare. Luckily during the test itself I managed to mainly concentrate on the task at hand without thinking of my mistakes, with a few unfortunate exceptions. I even thought it didn't go that badly as I was returning to hear my evaluation, though I knew I hadn't quite passed with flying colours.
Well, cue embarrassment while being trashed by the official evaluator - I feel that's quite natural. I had a few inklings of my brain attempting to feel unfairly treated but I squashed them intentionally because I knew I was just getting what I deserved. More interesting was the trip back, as my driving teacher very pointedly stayed silent about what I'd done wrong, letting me go over it myself. I noticed myself frantically grasping at the evaluator making a small mistake with my intentions and so making one of my mistakes seem larger than it actually was, trying to explain my failure that way. However, in all honesty, it doesn't matter one bit why I made a dangerous mistake if I made it, so I had to force myself to give up that kind of explanations.
Next in turn was blaming 'myself' - this was actually the most interesting part. When I realized I couldn't shift the blame on to somebody else, I tried to blame myself, but the parts of myself that felt separate from my actual 'self'. I blamed my personality, the way my mind works, some traits that would be best described as genetic... anything to feel as though it wasn't actually my fault, but the fault of my brain or body. I thought I'd never be a good driver because I hate driving, dislike cars in general and work poorly under pressure.
Fortunately I was keeping a close eye on my thoughts for just this kind of development and forced myself off that line of thought. However, it was surprisingly difficult. In fact, I'm not quite sure my self-study isn't just another method of avoidance, but generally I can't really go too far in analyzing my self or I'll never get to the end of it. It happened, I know what went wrong and I've got to focus on trying again in the future.
I'd like to pose a question - does anyone else recognize similar patterns of thought in themselves after a failure? Who do you blame, or do you blame anybody? Comments are welcome.
So, I just thought that it was fascinating to follow the workings of my own mind after a disappointment. In this case, I failed my driving test today, postponing my license by at least another week and a half. I'd already been preparing myself for the failure beforehand by telling myself I didn't expect to pass since I was very uncomfortable with driving in general and didn't trust my own skills, despite knowing from Psychology classes that this kind of negative reinforcement is not a good way to prepare. Luckily during the test itself I managed to mainly concentrate on the task at hand without thinking of my mistakes, with a few unfortunate exceptions. I even thought it didn't go that badly as I was returning to hear my evaluation, though I knew I hadn't quite passed with flying colours.
Well, cue embarrassment while being trashed by the official evaluator - I feel that's quite natural. I had a few inklings of my brain attempting to feel unfairly treated but I squashed them intentionally because I knew I was just getting what I deserved. More interesting was the trip back, as my driving teacher very pointedly stayed silent about what I'd done wrong, letting me go over it myself. I noticed myself frantically grasping at the evaluator making a small mistake with my intentions and so making one of my mistakes seem larger than it actually was, trying to explain my failure that way. However, in all honesty, it doesn't matter one bit why I made a dangerous mistake if I made it, so I had to force myself to give up that kind of explanations.
Next in turn was blaming 'myself' - this was actually the most interesting part. When I realized I couldn't shift the blame on to somebody else, I tried to blame myself, but the parts of myself that felt separate from my actual 'self'. I blamed my personality, the way my mind works, some traits that would be best described as genetic... anything to feel as though it wasn't actually my fault, but the fault of my brain or body. I thought I'd never be a good driver because I hate driving, dislike cars in general and work poorly under pressure.
Fortunately I was keeping a close eye on my thoughts for just this kind of development and forced myself off that line of thought. However, it was surprisingly difficult. In fact, I'm not quite sure my self-study isn't just another method of avoidance, but generally I can't really go too far in analyzing my self or I'll never get to the end of it. It happened, I know what went wrong and I've got to focus on trying again in the future.
I'd like to pose a question - does anyone else recognize similar patterns of thought in themselves after a failure? Who do you blame, or do you blame anybody? Comments are welcome.
lauantai 12. maaliskuuta 2011
Wildcard I
And right after I finish talking about the low risks of nuclear power, Japan has the threat of meltdown. Luckily the explosion seems to have not damaged the reactor containment, and they've managed to depressurize it by now. It was quite similar to the Three Mile Island incident, in fact.
But the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami caused a lot of devastation in the area. Props to the Japanese, they've coped with the situation extremely well, but the event was huge and there's many deaths, more missing and a lot to rebuild. The tragedy is made all the more real by the pictures in Tokyo, showing districts and streets where I've walked myself, and especially by people I know over the Internet who live there talking about the situation.
My thoughts go out to the people of Japan.
But the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami caused a lot of devastation in the area. Props to the Japanese, they've coped with the situation extremely well, but the event was huge and there's many deaths, more missing and a lot to rebuild. The tragedy is made all the more real by the pictures in Tokyo, showing districts and streets where I've walked myself, and especially by people I know over the Internet who live there talking about the situation.
My thoughts go out to the people of Japan.
torstai 10. maaliskuuta 2011
Justice - Liberté, égalité... sécurité?
Today I thought of writing less about my own life and more about certain things that are rather interesting to note. I've read a few of Cory Doctorow's books lately - he shares many of them for free on the internet, which is pretty awesome in my opinion. I encourage everyone to go check them out. The books are great and, especially to older people, they should prove to be a valuable viewpoint into the modern culture and the effect of the Internet on our society.
Another text, this one an article from a popular Finnish science magazine, talked about how risks are perceived as opposed to how they're calculated. Things we feel aren't in our control are seen as very scary, while if we feel as though we can affect things it doesn't even matter that we're actually at a greater risk. That's why flying on airplanes is feared more than driving with a car even though the latter results in way more deaths per travelled kilometer.
One great example is nuclear power. An accident at a nuclear reactor would result in maybe thirty thousand deaths, tops. If we built enough nuclear reactors to power the entire world, we'd have maybe one accident every two hundred years or so. That's what, 150 a year. Whereas CO2, carbon dioxide, is just what we breathe out. It's not scary at all, right? But if we don't stop spewing too much of it into the atmosphere, six sevenths of humankind will die. That's six billion. Feeling any fear yet?
Evolution has equipped us to be much more attentive towards things that could kill us than things that don't really matter, for obvious reasons. However, that means nowadays, when we live in a world with little to no real risks, we pay attention to all kinds of media fearmongering instead of scientific fact. According to a couple of studies, human beings would need seven occurrences of someone telling them Thing A is good to believe it after someone said once that Thing A is bad.
GM-food, nuclear power, viral medicines and such could have saved millions of lives so far, if they had not been blocked by the public opinion brought by the overstatement of minor risks in the news. Great going, naive world-saving greenfreaks.
Well, if anyone knows how the mob mentality works, it's politicians. Rational and well thought-out ideas for the intelligentsia are all good and well but the majority of the voters will vote for those who promise them the best benefits, despite the tax cuts being unattainable, or that guy whose face they saw on the news, not even realizing that they're voting for a party, not an individual. Why exactly do they assume that if someone's a good pop singer or a great hockey player he'd make a good president is beyond me. Oh well.
That's one of the underlying traps of democracy. If everyone voted for what's best for them, the majority would be the best off. However, since everyone votes for people who then decide what's best for everyone, it tends to lead to poor decisions as well. It's much easier to get a mob of people to vote for you than to actually make good initiatives and build the society in the right direction.
Benevolent dictatorship is the best /theoretical/ form of government. So yeah, Murska for King, folks.
EDIT: I would like to note that, if I end up having a political career in the future and my opponents dig this blog post up to use it against me in the media, I do not in fact endorse dictatorship over democracy. A benevolent dictatorship is a theoretical form of government unattainable in practice.
Another text, this one an article from a popular Finnish science magazine, talked about how risks are perceived as opposed to how they're calculated. Things we feel aren't in our control are seen as very scary, while if we feel as though we can affect things it doesn't even matter that we're actually at a greater risk. That's why flying on airplanes is feared more than driving with a car even though the latter results in way more deaths per travelled kilometer.
One great example is nuclear power. An accident at a nuclear reactor would result in maybe thirty thousand deaths, tops. If we built enough nuclear reactors to power the entire world, we'd have maybe one accident every two hundred years or so. That's what, 150 a year. Whereas CO2, carbon dioxide, is just what we breathe out. It's not scary at all, right? But if we don't stop spewing too much of it into the atmosphere, six sevenths of humankind will die. That's six billion. Feeling any fear yet?
Evolution has equipped us to be much more attentive towards things that could kill us than things that don't really matter, for obvious reasons. However, that means nowadays, when we live in a world with little to no real risks, we pay attention to all kinds of media fearmongering instead of scientific fact. According to a couple of studies, human beings would need seven occurrences of someone telling them Thing A is good to believe it after someone said once that Thing A is bad.
GM-food, nuclear power, viral medicines and such could have saved millions of lives so far, if they had not been blocked by the public opinion brought by the overstatement of minor risks in the news. Great going, naive world-saving greenfreaks.
Well, if anyone knows how the mob mentality works, it's politicians. Rational and well thought-out ideas for the intelligentsia are all good and well but the majority of the voters will vote for those who promise them the best benefits, despite the tax cuts being unattainable, or that guy whose face they saw on the news, not even realizing that they're voting for a party, not an individual. Why exactly do they assume that if someone's a good pop singer or a great hockey player he'd make a good president is beyond me. Oh well.
That's one of the underlying traps of democracy. If everyone voted for what's best for them, the majority would be the best off. However, since everyone votes for people who then decide what's best for everyone, it tends to lead to poor decisions as well. It's much easier to get a mob of people to vote for you than to actually make good initiatives and build the society in the right direction.
Benevolent dictatorship is the best /theoretical/ form of government. So yeah, Murska for King, folks.
EDIT: I would like to note that, if I end up having a political career in the future and my opponents dig this blog post up to use it against me in the media, I do not in fact endorse dictatorship over democracy. A benevolent dictatorship is a theoretical form of government unattainable in practice.
lauantai 5. maaliskuuta 2011
The Chariot - Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the dogs of war
In my experience not many people know of it abroad, but Finland is a country with mandatory conscription. You can choose civil service for the state or service in the military. The 'draft slips' for my age group arrived in the mail yesterday and I've been filling in my details today for a medical exam.
In my opinion, the Finnish army is a bit of a waste. Nobody realistically expects us to do much against Russia, and nobody expects anyone else to attack us. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, either. So, while it's a good 'training course' for some eventualities and all, I don't think the army's worth the cost - we could spend our tax euros on something like social spending, decreasing unemployment, shutting up idiot populists and such. However, for historical and political reasons (read: poor reasons) trying to advocate shutting down the army means committing political suicide. Therefore, it's been receiving budget cuts slowly but surely and more and more army operations have been purged without any public attention from the media.
As for my own situation, I suppose I'll be trying for the Electronic Warfare groups in Riihimäki or Tikkakoski. Those mean I'd be trained as a NCO so I'd get the maximum 12-month term. It's no big deal, really, since I'm aiming to ensure a place in the Uni before I go. They'll keep it waiting for me.
As for the NCO training, I'm not quite sure how great a leader I'll be. I mean, I'm confident that I can do command, but I'm not exactly sure about how well I'll lead. That's the big thing. Leadership differs a lot from command ability, and is quite important for a NCO. As is physical fitness, technically, so there's something I'm not interested in and certainly not good at.
Oh well. Somebody taught me today that, among all the things life is, one is finding new stuff to laugh at. And the most important one is myself. I mean, I'm completely ridiculous. Everybody should get a mirror and laugh at it every once in a while. We take all kinds of things seriously, but as long as our self isn't one of those, things'll always be fine. Except when they aren't. Like when you're getting shot at. Damn, but I hate getting shot at.
Anyway, I suppose I'll be going back to getting shot at virtually. World of Tanks is awesome. Sayonara, folks.
In my opinion, the Finnish army is a bit of a waste. Nobody realistically expects us to do much against Russia, and nobody expects anyone else to attack us. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, either. So, while it's a good 'training course' for some eventualities and all, I don't think the army's worth the cost - we could spend our tax euros on something like social spending, decreasing unemployment, shutting up idiot populists and such. However, for historical and political reasons (read: poor reasons) trying to advocate shutting down the army means committing political suicide. Therefore, it's been receiving budget cuts slowly but surely and more and more army operations have been purged without any public attention from the media.
As for my own situation, I suppose I'll be trying for the Electronic Warfare groups in Riihimäki or Tikkakoski. Those mean I'd be trained as a NCO so I'd get the maximum 12-month term. It's no big deal, really, since I'm aiming to ensure a place in the Uni before I go. They'll keep it waiting for me.
As for the NCO training, I'm not quite sure how great a leader I'll be. I mean, I'm confident that I can do command, but I'm not exactly sure about how well I'll lead. That's the big thing. Leadership differs a lot from command ability, and is quite important for a NCO. As is physical fitness, technically, so there's something I'm not interested in and certainly not good at.
Oh well. Somebody taught me today that, among all the things life is, one is finding new stuff to laugh at. And the most important one is myself. I mean, I'm completely ridiculous. Everybody should get a mirror and laugh at it every once in a while. We take all kinds of things seriously, but as long as our self isn't one of those, things'll always be fine. Except when they aren't. Like when you're getting shot at. Damn, but I hate getting shot at.
Anyway, I suppose I'll be going back to getting shot at virtually. World of Tanks is awesome. Sayonara, folks.
torstai 3. maaliskuuta 2011
The Lovers - Spring is in the air
It's an interesting feeling, waking up a few minutes before school, knowing you're so late it doesn't even matter what you do anymore and just getting to school at your leisure, a couple hours late. Realizing that, even though you're usually cooped up in the artificially lit 'torture chambers' behind the school gates - well, electronically keypad-locked doors that prevent you from fetching your stuff after four by switching the code for no good reason, actually - there's light out there nowadays. Sunlight. The Day Star is shining upon us in Finland and melting all those beautiful piles of snow into so much slosh and slippery patches of ice that it's a miracle any old people survive long enough to become a risk to the national economy.
Meanwhile, riding a bike to school has become even more annoying than it was in the harsh winds and -30C mornings - at least you stayed upright back then, unless you froze solid and clunked down on the pavement. (No, this rant has nothing to do with the fact that I fell on my bike yesterday evening... stupid ice...)
Regardless, spring's coming. And time keeps flying by while I don't really get anything new done. I keep getting the feeling that I should be working for my future, not just drifting aimlessly towards it, but it's easy to think of what you should do. So easy, that you spend more time thinking than doing.
Inspiration struck me last night at 3am and kept me awake for way too long. But now I have another bassline ready for a song which will probably never receive it's lyrics. A bassist working alone is a sad sight - I really wish I had a band again.
The most obvious meaning for the Lovers card isn't always the correct one. There are so many ways to make a connection in this world, I prefer to trust DNS over SMS, let alone some weird non-electrical vibrations in the air. (Yes, I know my cell is wireless, shut up.)
"What lies ahead of us and what lies behind are of little importance compared to what lies straight to our faces."
-Simo Lehtinen, glaring at the lens flare
Meanwhile, riding a bike to school has become even more annoying than it was in the harsh winds and -30C mornings - at least you stayed upright back then, unless you froze solid and clunked down on the pavement. (No, this rant has nothing to do with the fact that I fell on my bike yesterday evening... stupid ice...)
Regardless, spring's coming. And time keeps flying by while I don't really get anything new done. I keep getting the feeling that I should be working for my future, not just drifting aimlessly towards it, but it's easy to think of what you should do. So easy, that you spend more time thinking than doing.
Inspiration struck me last night at 3am and kept me awake for way too long. But now I have another bassline ready for a song which will probably never receive it's lyrics. A bassist working alone is a sad sight - I really wish I had a band again.
The most obvious meaning for the Lovers card isn't always the correct one. There are so many ways to make a connection in this world, I prefer to trust DNS over SMS, let alone some weird non-electrical vibrations in the air. (Yes, I know my cell is wireless, shut up.)
"What lies ahead of us and what lies behind are of little importance compared to what lies straight to our faces."
-Simo Lehtinen, glaring at the lens flare
tiistai 1. maaliskuuta 2011
The Hierophant - Teacher Extrordinaire
The Hierophant is sometimes called the Pope. The funny thing is, the Priestess was in some of the original decks the Popess, which caused some understandable controversy among the Church of the time.
Supposedly the Hierophant is about wisdom and education, as well as conservatism. I'm in school right now, I suppose, but I'm kind of bored here - this card ain't my type. I spend my classes sleeping or ditching, for the most part. But that ain't such a big deal, since I'm pretty strong at furthering myself on my own. I don't really work with other people so well.
Though, I do like teamwork in the broad perspective of games and music. Oh well.
Last weekend I bought a few card games in Helsinki. Haven't tested them yet, though I intend to as soon as I get a group together. Friday's gonna be a poker night anyway, perhaps I'll get them to play Tarocchi instead for a game or two. For training, you know. And money, for me.
Other than that, it appears my presentation has been rescheduled due later, which is ok with me. Gods damn it but I'm tired nowadays. Not really tired of life per se but tired of everything that comes with it. Sleeping and not eating, two things that characterize my days. Sheesh.
Well, I guess I'll immerse myself in the negotiations again. Later, folks.
Supposedly the Hierophant is about wisdom and education, as well as conservatism. I'm in school right now, I suppose, but I'm kind of bored here - this card ain't my type. I spend my classes sleeping or ditching, for the most part. But that ain't such a big deal, since I'm pretty strong at furthering myself on my own. I don't really work with other people so well.
Though, I do like teamwork in the broad perspective of games and music. Oh well.
Last weekend I bought a few card games in Helsinki. Haven't tested them yet, though I intend to as soon as I get a group together. Friday's gonna be a poker night anyway, perhaps I'll get them to play Tarocchi instead for a game or two. For training, you know. And money, for me.
Other than that, it appears my presentation has been rescheduled due later, which is ok with me. Gods damn it but I'm tired nowadays. Not really tired of life per se but tired of everything that comes with it. Sleeping and not eating, two things that characterize my days. Sheesh.
Well, I guess I'll immerse myself in the negotiations again. Later, folks.
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